Cook And Tell

By Sandra Ballentine

Published: November 10, 2002

Unlike Elvis, most celebrities don't look as if they eat, let alone cook, but if the sheer number of star-powered cookbooks around is an indication, a lot of the famous are chow hounds, too.

According to Nach Waxman, the owner of Kitchen Arts and Letters in Manhattan, his three most popular celebrity tomes have been Dinah Shore's ''Someone's in the Kitchen With Dinah,'' Sophia Loren's ''Recipes and Memories'' and ''Liberace Cooks!'' They contain a lot more than Liberace's Turkey Tetrazzini and Dinah's Day Later Turkey. For example, you get to ogle Sophia's two sons and read her endless tributes to carbohydrates.

Joining Sophia in the Italian kitchen are books from Dom DeLuise (you know that one's got to be good); Martin Scorsese's mother, Catherine; and Stanley Tucci's mother, Joan. One look at the new ''Sopranos Family Cookbook: As Compiled by Artie Bucco'' (Warner Books), and you know where Tony got his tummy.

The Mandrell sisters have a cookbook. So does Patti LaBelle, and Gladys Knight also tells us how to exercise and fight diabetes (which led to her mother's death). Suzanne Somers puts her money where her thighs are in ''Suzanne Somers' Fast and Easy: Lose Weight the Somersize Way With Quick Delicious Meals for the Entire Family'' (Crown). Two slightly less svelte men sing the praises of red meat in ''Al Roker's Big, Bad Book of Barbecue'' (Scribner) and Ted (and Shemane) Nugent's ''Kill It and Grill It: A Guide to Preparing and Cooking Wild Game and Fish'' (Regnery Publishing). Now, that's entertaining! -- Sandra Ballentine

Photos (RIGHT, FROM TOP: TONY CENICOLA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES (3); JOSEPH DEL VALLE/NBC/GLOBE PHOTOS; ANDREA RENAULT/GLOBE PHOTOS.6